Those 10 days went flying by...

***Updated because I found my flash card reader.***

Ok, let's see. Recap of the last ten days. Think of it as a Cliff notes version of life at the Zoo.
I and 2 of the kids got and got over a cold and stomach issues.

Baseball camp:
J had a baseball camp with 3 minor league ball players. He really enjoyed himself and learned a lot. I found out that a. the boy can hit a pitched ball better than a machine pitch and b. it takes about four hours for a frozen behind to warm up again.
5 hours out in 40 degrees, windy, overcast skies shows true dedication as a parent. I spent the time working on ZooDad's hat and wearing Mom's hat to stay warm.

7 speech and OT sessions:
Going well. A had a high holy duck fit when the new pre-school therapist showed up at the house. It was nice for someone in school authority to see that side of him. Open defiance is rare for him but BOY is it ugly.
St Linda had an episode at one session and miraculously fixed herself once again. Chrysler Dude and I may have uncovered the cause but it's not a fixable issue. Crazy van.

Valentine's day: I got a skin for my ipod video from the boys. I also downloaded a whole bunch of chick music and podcasts.

House: Was clean but now I have a mountain of laundry to fold. Carpets are clean though. I had Duraclean come and do them. Those people are wonderful. $100 and two rooms, two halls, one set of stairs and the top landing are all sparkling. All the UCS's (Unidentified carpet stains) are gone.
This is so much better than me doing it.

Knitting:
ZooDad's massive hat had a catastophe due to my figgling around with the pattern but I think I may have pulled that one out. I should finish it in the next few days. I've had to rewrite the whole pattern to accommodate thinner yarn and a bigger head. This is the same Cascade Quatro yarn from the last hat. #8 needles in the round. This will eventually have two jester's braids with tassels.










I started sock class with Penny. I'm working on a new sideways sock with some wild purple variations.

This is Lorna's Laces Watercolor and some funky purple. That's waste yarn from a provisional cast on. Thankfully that lovely yarn will go away. #1 DPNs. ONES!!! They are ridiculously thin. If I get through these socks without breaking a needle...it will be a miracle. I hope to get the other sock panel done before class next week. I have two skeins of the watercolor, so I can work both socks at once.









Cub Scouts:
Oh my. Pine wood derby was Saturday. (We made the cars Thursday and Friday. I stuck the wheels on Saturday morning.) Both boys won first place in both of their dens. J won second place in the whole pack and M took third.
I was shocked. All the parents just looked at me. Thankfully, all I really did was polish the axles. You can tell by the boys' cars that I did not make them for them. They weren't exactly pretty but they sure were fast. M was especially ecstatic. His goal for this year was to just make it over the finish line. His first car had some clearance issues and got stuck on the track. J's car is the alligator. He carved it himself. M's is the red. He did all that sanding and painting. BTW...The green circle is Uranus. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Cake making:
My great niece's party was Sunday. She wanted a princess cake with pink and purple butterflies. So imagine if you will (until such a time when I can upload pictures.)a small wedding cake with flowers and candy butterflies...all done in Barbie Pink and Purple. M's only comment was, "Ugh....too girly." The birthday girl was thrilled beyond words. All she could do was gasp and smile.
All the other great nieces and nephews have put in requests for their own cakes. (There are 7 of them and one niece on ZooDad's side.)

Why children are fabulous entertainment

Baby S is 2 years and months old.
He talks.
He really talks.
He carries on full conversations, sometimes with just himself.

He was upstairs while his brothers were outside playing. Apparently, he was watching everything that was going on outside.
I heard him upstairs yelling:
"Hey Brothers. Hey, What you doing?
Hey Angel. (The dog)
Angel, you eat a dog bone?
Stamper! (The other dog)
Stamper, you eat a dog bone.
Hey Stamper, you eat it all.
Stamper! Stamper!
You done?
Hey Stamper.
I know you hear me Stamper."

I finally suggested that he go outside and speak with the dogs directly.
"But I have no shoes. I have no socks. I have on my pants though. Hey....I stink too. You change my diaper? No...no...It's just gas."

He is currently beside me playing with little Rescue heroes as I type. Full running commentary.
"walk, walk, walk
Nope, still too far to go.
Pshooo (shooting noise)
I got the silly bad guy.
You dead Silly bad guy?
Oh no, a space ship.
Help, help
Yeah space ship you hear me saying help.
Help me get down. It's too far to walk.
Pshoom, pshoom. (space ship noises)
Thanks for the ride.
Do you know the way to the mountain?
You fly right over that mountain
You'll see the silly bad guy.
I shot him.
He's dying, dying, dying.
He won't get better."

I smell a sci-fi channel screenplay. I guarantee it would be better than that English made were-wolf movie they showed last year.

The flame

Opening ceremonies.

Oh how I love the Olympics. ZooDad hates the Olympics. He has a special hatred for Ice dancing and Rhythmic gymnastics. Thankfully we have DVR and I can just record everything and then watch it when ZooDad is at work.

I love the opening ceremonies best though. All those athletes, so proud to wear their countries' colors. Full of hope. Dedicated. All set to do their very best for themselves and their countries.

Most of these proud men and women won't ever see the medal stand. They knew this before they even arrived in Italy. But they still came to do their best. Citius, Altius, Fortius. That's all they are shooting for. A medal is just gravy.

One more...

J had a birthday a few weeks ago. I totally missed my chance to wax poetically about his birth 10 years ago. But frankly, I don't remember much of it and what I do remember is hysterical and a total 180 of a natural homebirth. So I will spare y'all the details.

The kid turned 10 and much fun was had.
And we had cake.
A dragon cake to be more specific. J had requested a black dragon but I have already learned the lesson taught by black food coloring.
So we compromised on a chocolate dragon.
And here he is.

Now just look at this dragon.
He has quite an expression on his face. He looks a bit morose or it might be a case of indigestion...as if he is saying with his sad dragon eyes..."Wow! I can't believe I ate the whole herd."

Now don't be fooled by the small picture. You can't appreciate the scale of this cake. That body was made from a 10" pan cut in half. His eyes are full sized cup-cakes. His scaly armor is made from candy melts. and those pupils are M&M's.


He was a mighty cake dragon. And we ate him all up. If I ever make another dragon cake, well let's just say I learned quite a bit from this monster.

More knitting

So you might wonder. Why does the woman have a knitting blog while she still posts all that knitting junk here instead. It would be because I am inherently too lazy to have 2 blogs. I can't really compartmentalize my crazy life enough to have two separate blogs. It all kind of runs together. Case in point: This is supposed to be a homeschool blog and just how much homechooling do I actually talk about?

So bring on the knitting.



Here's Mom's finished hat. This is what she asked for. Brown cotton, plain Jane, roll brim hat. After much cajoling and me attempting to photograph myself, I finally got one of the boys to model the "girl's hat."

So there it is ...in all it's brown, rolled brim glory. In fact it has a serious brim on it. My Mom could actually unroll it down to cover her chin if she were so inclined. I kind of got crazy with the stockinette.
Specs: Two strands of Tamany Tweed cotton done on #8 DPNS. This is the hat that I was doing on #5's and then frogged it all out because it was the hat that would not end.




Same kid, different hat.

(sidenote: All of my kids have these blue eyes. It's rather shocking. The baby's are almost crayon blue. I have golden hazel eyes and ZooDad's are like chocolate. Gotta love those recessive genes.)

Here's ZooDad's hat that is way too small for his massive head. It stretches like crazy but it's just too snug. So J has commandeered it and I am knitting a new hat (my Olympic challenge) for ZooDad in the exact same yarn.

cascade Quatro on #8's. I love the #8 don't I? This yarn knits up so easy. Even the dark colors are easy to see the stitches.

So there's all my knitting news. Tomorrow, the knitting Olympics starts and you'll be overrun with knitting news.
Just what you wanted right?

My Possessed Van: Part Three...Linda is Back

Back in October and November, I told the tale of my van and its...um...odd behavior.

The van has had a history of unusual problems. First of all, there is the automatic door that might or might not close when you want it too. The same door has a habit of not giving the right away to people when it is closing. Like some Detroit Chicken game, the door just decides that it is closing regardless of what obstacle is in its way. And let me tell you, it can use its 20 pounds per square inch of pressure in the most efficient way. Most times the door loses, but every now and then, I am forced to concede that it is just too powerful for me.

Then there was the window incident where the window would not roll down and then spontaneously fixed itself. Oddly enough the same door had a lock issue. I never mentioned it...or maybe I did. I know I grumped about it quite a bit in Real Life. Anyway, the "unlock" button stopped working. And you had to either unlock it with the key or reach over. Either way it was a pain in the butt.
That fixed itself too. One day, it just stopped working and then one day, it just worked.
Weird? I think so.

Oh and we can't forget the day it stopped parking. That one was fun to explain to ZooDad and the guys at the Chrysler Fix-em-up shop. No one believes you when you say your van just won't park.

And I know for a fact that I didn't even bring up that the thermostat just froze in the open position leaving me with a van that never warmed up (the little engine pointer stayed on "C.") and lacking all manner of heat. It took the guys 2 trips to the shop to figure out that lovely little problem last week. Even after I told them that it was the thermostat.

So, just imagine the look on my face today.
At speech at the school as usual on Tuesday mornings.
With the boys doing school work and listening to SOTW on CD.
Just imagine my face when the CD player went dead after 20 minutes.
Dead.
No power.
Then I instinctively turned the key to hear... "click, click, click, click."
It was all I could do to keep the flood of profanity from erupting from my mouth.

It was Deja' Vu. I had lived that very moment. Heck, it hadn't even been long enough for me to get my oil changed again.

I got out of the van and stomped and flailed my arms, scaring the dickens out of the custodial worker taking out the trash. (Crazy homeschool mom.) Then I called ZooDad who made me do the whole "start the van" thing again. (Didn't work.) Then called my guy at the Chrysler place, (They know my voice. They know my van. They know my children.) to let them know that I was returning once more with my van ASAP and that I was not happy.

By the time, ZooDad arrived to rescue me....the van started right up.
Yep...another Chrysler miracle. If my van were a nun, she'd be a saint by now.

But I wasn't falling for it this time. I took it straight to the shop, straight to the manager and had a loooooooong discussion about the fact that my van stops working and the fact that is miraculously and disturbingly starts working again.

They think they know the problem now. Some regulator from the battery to the rest of the van. It should be ready by lunch tomorrow. I sure hope that's it because my van will be paid off next month and I plan on driving that bad girl into the ground.
Even if the face of Jesus fogs up in my rear window.

Saint Linda...Patron Saint of the mini-vans.

Swatched, designed and all ready to go.

I'm all set for the Knitting Olympics. (I know this should go on the knitting blog...but I clicked this one, so there ;P

I'm making another hat for ZooDad. I finished his first one and even with the massive amount of K2,P2 ribbing, it barely fits his massive noggin.

So I am starting a new hat, designed just for him.
I planned to do the Rebel, Rebel hat from the Lion Yarns book of hats. (picture to come later) That's the one hubby picked out. It has cables up the sides that turn into knitted braids that end in two (like pigtails) tassels on the top of the hat. It will be absolutely ridiculous on ZooDad's head.

The problem was that I didn't have any chunky weight yarn that ZooDad liked nor did I have #10.5 DPNs. My hat plan was foiled. (I have too significant of a yarn staff to justify buying more yarn right now.)

So I swatched a few rounds of Cascade 220 on #8 circular needles to determine how many stitches I would need to go around ZooDad's head. (104 with a little stretching on the ribbing) Then I swatched out the cables to see how to do it and rewrote the whole pattern to accommodate the smaller yarn and increased amount of stitches.
Now I am all set to go.

In fact, the project seems that it just might be a bit too easy. I mean, this is supposed to be a challenge. Something that is to push us to go beyond our level of expertise.
So I have a back-up Olympic challenge. I have cable socks (Never done any patterned socks) ready to go too. I plan to knit them on 2 circular needles (which I have also never done) at the same time. (New for me too.) I've already swatched that yarn and rolled two little balls.
The swatching went well. I'm right on gauge. The rolling of the little balls was a fiasco. I need a ball winder.
Since I don't have one and had never made two balls from one...I pulled out the whole skein. (Picture that mess)
And then folded the two ends and made one ball with two strands. Cut the end and unwound the ball into two piles. (twice the mess) And finally wound each ball separately.
Next time I will just buy two skiens and make two pairs of socks. It was bad. The yarn made it through but my nerves were shot.

Just letting you know

According to the official Zoo Schedule, The following dates in February are free (not counting our regular school stuff): 9th, 20th, and 27th. Every other day is booked up. Some are double booked.
Yep...To quote the Veggies..."I'm busy, busy...dreadfully busy."

I'm looking at the calendar and wondering how it's all going to happen.
sniff...sniff
I smell a challenge.
I Loooooooove a challenge.

I know it's big

It's really big. I'm sorry.
Photobucket is having some sizing issues and I'm too lazy to go upstairs and fire up the Harrier so I can use Photoshop.
Just scroll past the family. But while you are doing that, please notice just how close to the water my family is standing. We saw two alligators that day. TWO! One was about 25 feet from the location of the sign.

Thankfully, we didn't feed any alligators and came home with all four kids.

The kid has surpassed me

We have several bird feeders on our deck, right outside a bank of kitchen windows. I love having little feathers friends and I'm a sucker for a pretty brass bird feeder. Our yard also backs up to a Wetland habitat with a large open field that draws lots of non-bird feeder types.
So the Boys have grown up watching our daily visitors. A couple of Christmases ago, J was given an Audubon Bird Guide and the NG Field Guide to Birds. These really help cement a love for casual birdwatching. And they made it much harder for me to let the feeders run empty.

Both books are lacking front covers now and the two oldest boys have become quite proficient at picking out the important details needed for identification. My MIL has watched in wonder as 6 pairs of cardinals have perched all around the deck. (She never gets them on the farm and they are her favorites.) Lately, we've had Red-Bellied Woodpeckers at the feeders and picking at bugs between the deck boards.
It's quite entertaining to see a big woodpecker trying to perch on a feeder that the Cardinals barely fit on.
One morning we awoke to a Blue Heron in the back yard. We often see Turkey Vultures riding the thermals in great packs. We occasionally have a family of Canadian geese stop by but none live in the wetland. Red Tailed Hawks search for rodents, as does Max the Cat...but he seems to specialize in moles. Fat Mourning Doves sit on the Deck Rails waiting for food to drop. They've learned that they are just too awkward to even try to perch on the feeders.
We see Robins hunting for worms, Little Black-capped Chickadees hopping nervously, and Field Sparrows have claimed our front porch as prime nesting real estate.
Thrashers, Warblers, Sprarrows...all eating and fighting around the back deck.

So today I looked outside and spied something I hadn't seen before. (or so I thought.) I yelled for J to come and see this new little bird with black on the top, white on the bottom, and an orange stripe under its wing.

"Mom...It's just a female Tufted Titmouse. They come all the time."

Shoot. How could I miss a Tufted Titmouse

The sword has shifted slightly

It's still hanging up there but the position has shifted slightly.

Edited to add obscure lyrics to relate to the obscure mythical reference: "Oh Woe is me...My life is a misery." 100 ZooPoints to whomever can name that particular song. 50 for the mythical reference.

The school system has decided to provide OT/Pre-school readiness services to A one hour a week. AT HOME! Woohoo! And if the school person feels his need is too great, they will add services from an Occupational therapist...AT MY HOME!

No added running around. So we're back to just running around on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I'm so happy. Happy that he will get services and happy that they will come to me. It's a big relief.

Here's a bit for my "A cracks me up" file.
The other day he told me that when he's a Dad, his children will pick out their own names. I was kind of heart broken for a moment. Don't you like your name? It was my Daddy's name. It was a wonderful name and one to be proud of. Why don't you want to name your own children names that are special too?
"But I don't KNOW any names. So they can just name themselves."
Hee, hee, hee.

When I asked him what he would call these children until they were old enough to actually name themselves, he replied, "I'll call them Baby, Little Man, and Boo." (Our terms of affection for the boys.) Everyday, he talks about his "children that will have to name themselves." The speech therapist even brought it up. When I explained it to her, she didn't even try not to laugh.

You should hear his plan for their rooms, wall colors, and TV situation. He's got it all planned out...except names.

An education post

Lessons learned so far this year:

Rod and Staff grammar is great for my advanced reader and highly creative writer who just happens to be a gifted speller.
Rod and Staff grammar is a horrible fit for my troubled reader with poor fine motor skills that can not pick out details and gets frustrated by a lot of information in a small area.

Singapore Science is great for all learning styles as long as the Mom has a extensive background in science or knows someone with a great background. It is great for fostering scientific thinking but lax on vocabulary and hands-on learning. Thankfully, I can easily make up for that. I have more trouble paring down the info than beefing it up. For non-science moms or science moms with "Barney-brain" the teacher's guides are worth the money.

Explode the Code is awesome for kids who just aren't getting the "code." It also help with spelling and handwriting. The Pre-code books are equally fabulous. The drawings are all a bit...well...Unprofessional but that just seems to be Mom's issue and the the kids'.
MCP phonics isn't nearly as good as ETC and the Teacher's Guide is a total waste of money.

Spelling workout doesn't help spellers with speech problems and it isn't a challenge for natural spellers. But it is great for vocabulary.

Wordly Wise is an asset for children who gifted with words but torture for those who aren't.

MCP math is the bomb baby! Singapore math is just not for kids who have their own strong, spatial, understanding of math. In fact it can be a detriment for kids who have a good grasp on math. It messes with their way of figuring things out and not in a good way. It's cute though and has great word problems.

Story of the World is best done without all the activities and stuff. Just read and discuss. If you need pictures use a supplement book or look up stuff online. All the extra stuff just keeps us from getting it done.

Evan-Moore Daily Geography is fast and incredibly useful. We do the whole week in one setting and it covers most of the "social studies" stuff that SOTW doesn't.

Latin doesn't get done but that is ok.

Mind benders, Building thinking skills, and logic games like Rush Hour and RIver Crossing are worth their weight in gold.

Oh...and snap circuits are the greatest invention ever for boys ages 8 and up.

Because I just can't leave things alone

After Monday's meeting, I starting working up my new plan. (See I can manage anything with a plan. It's the whole "out there flappin' thing" that just rails on my nerves.)

My current plan for the "fellows of many needs" in our little zoo is:

Tuesdays: A gets 30 minutes of speech at school and them M gets his own 30 minutes of speech at school.
Wednesdays: M and A alternate OT in private therapy for 20 visits each and then we shell out some more big bucks to make up the rest of the 12 weeks of the year.
Fridays: A goes back to school for another 30 minutes of speech.
When summer hits, both boys go to private speech 1 hour a week for 20 visits each.
In the mean time I continue to fight the state for Medicaid bennies for A. I think this will turn out in our favor. So far all of the local cases have been reinstated. Let's just hope the judge agrees with us.
We will also have A re-evaluated using the Miller and Peabody pre-school tests. These new results go to the school and the state to fight for school therapy and re-instatement of state benefits.

Other news. I just got a call from our special needs coordinator. We have another meeting scheduled for the 30th, after she received further information from the state. I have no idea what that information is but I would HOPE that we wouldn't schedule a second meeting to tell us that A didn't qualify for services. That would just be cruel.

This all brings me back to that "things I have learned that I never thought I would have to" kind of feeling. Sometimes, I kind of step back and listen to the words I throw around in these meetings and think, "Dang girl, I don't remember anyone mentioning this stuff in childbirth class. This is soooooooo not what we signed up for."
A friend of mine told me that God gives parents these children with special needs to see how we will respond to the challenge. Whether we will view these children as a gift from God to treasure and do all we can for. Of if we will see them a burden to deal with.

I have to admit that sometimes I feel both ways. I see parents whose biggest worry is a kid with a cold and I envy them. They've never had to put a child under anesthesia for surgery. They've never watched a child with a feeding tube cry for milk. They've never sat with a child on a nubulizer fighting to breathe. They don't spend 4 hours a week in a waiting room, every week.

But then again to those people that first "momma" just isn't as sweet. Running down the hall without falling even once isn't that big of an achievement. A handwritten name with all the letters well formed and facing the right directions isn't grounds for a huge celebration. And they will never understand that making eye contact and saying "hello" to a stranger is a massive mountain to surmount.

And while I would love to spend just one day not having to make accommodations, I could imagine my life any different. My children's disabilities are just part of who they are. They will overcome them and it will make them stronger, more compassionate people in the end. And their "normal" brothers will benefit from watching their brothers preservere and succeed despite all that stuff in the way. They will learn true tolerance and acceptance. They will learn that anything that has value is worth working for. They will learn that it is their job when they become parents to do all they can for their own children and never, ever give up.

At least I hope that is what they will learn.

Out of holding pattern and starting to descend

Ever since we found out that A had lost his special needs medical benefits, I've been in standby mode. I just can't handle the unknown, especially an unknown dependent upon the whims of other people.

Today, things are not quite so unknown. We hired an advocate and yesterday we all sat down at the school to discuss what care he would get through them. He missed out on OT by .07ths of a point. Rules state 2 standard deviations below the norm in one area on two tests or -1.5 SDs in two areas. He scrored -2.33 in one area and -1.93 on the other test of that area (that translates into one point too high.) and he scored -1.4 in two other areas. (N retest was done since he "passed.")

He does qualify for speech though. He'll get two 30 minute sessions each week.
We're still fighting the other. He'll be retested and the school says that they will accept the results. They know he needs help. They know he does have significant developmental delay, even if the scores are a tad too to high. And they know he has know he has no cognitive problems (1.4 SD above average) and his language is wonderful (1.3 SD above average.)

So while it isn't the best outcome, I can now take the next steps. I'm not just circling and waiting on someone else to do their job.

Banging head against the table

I know his spelling isn't that great. I know his fine motor coordination makes his handwriting unbeautiful. I know his vision affects his reading.

But WHY, WHY, WHY is he not getting that sentences start with a capital letter and end with some sort of punctuation. We've done the first chapter of R&S grammar. We've done all the sentence stuff form at least 3 other workbook/textbooks and the kid still won't start a sentence with a capital letter and put punctuation at the end.


You know what bugs me the most though. For anyone else, he would feel compelled to perform well. He wants to please other people and tries hard to meet expectations...except mine.

All I want is a capital at the beginning and a period at the end.

I have a new blog

I didn't want to bore you with knitting and crocheting posts. (not that I mind boring you with all the other stuff.) So I started A Zoo Full of Knitting because the knitting needs its own darn zoo.

Just two posts and one of them you've seen before. But you have to see my socks. In fact if you know anyone who mind need the pair in their current condition...I'll RAK them to you. LOL

Close...very

From my IRL friend at Lover of Dolphins

What LoTR Character Are You?

You are most like Merry. Hooray for you! You have no problems fitting in with a crowd, and you are often the life of the party. Good thing you're really smart too. Although many people like you, you are very serious about life. Go ahead and make the best of it. Just remember that those who are closest to you will be lost forever if you forget them.

The remembrance thing hits home. I am the family memory. I keep all the special photos and trinkets, wedding rings, glasses, rosaries. When my father died, we called the cemetery for get the plot number. For some reason the needed to look it up by the death date of the last person buried. January 10, 1984. I knew it without thinking. My Nanny died that day. My brother was dumbfounded that I remembered it when I was only 13 at the time.

But I forgot MIL's birthday this year. So I am far for perfect. LOL

A victory for the kid who can't see so well

M has eye problems. He was diagnosed at 3 with strabismus. It was temporarily "cured" with glasses. When he was 4, the diagnosis was strabismus (accommodative esotropia), 4th nerve palsy and astigmatism in both eyes. Oh yeah, and he's far-sighted. By that time his vision in his turning eye had gone to 20/100. We patched for several months...8 to 10 hours each day.
It hard to teach letters to a kid with one eye...with 20/30 vision. Then there was the first surgery and the time without glasses to help his eye muscles learn to work again. And then the second surgery and more time without glasses.

It's been a year since his last surgery. His vision is currently 20/30 and he is still out of glasses until we get those eyes aligned as well as possible. We're close.

During this whole eye ordeal, reading instruction has been not been as dedicated as it would for a child with no vision problems. Plus his speech problems cause some difficulty in decoding. His ophthalmologist has viewed our homeschooling as a positive thing. We've been able to focus on his eye health instead of school grades. A school kid would have been back in glasses way before now and wouldn't get the chance to let his eyes align naturally. For us, vision and ultimately binocular vision is most important. The school stuff can wait.

The fact that the kid doesn't enjoy reading (and you wouldn't either if you had to close one eye and cock your head to see things. And if your eyes jumped enough to make you lose your place on the line with every few words.) doesn't help either.

But tonight I pulled out a copy of "My Father's Dragon" and he read the first chapter for me with very few problems thanks to bright lighting and a blue highlighter line to help him stay on the correct line. He's even over that "race right over the periods but stop sentences at the end of the line" thing that drives me crazy about little kid oral reading. He was able to understand what he was reading and didn't have to focus all his attention on decoding.

First chapter book. One chapter down...nine more to go.

It's better than Comedy Central

S is having a fine funny day.
Well not at the very moment. At this very moment he is asleep on our bed in time out for hitting one of his brothers in the head with a rather large stick/pine tree branch.
But earlier he was down right funny.

He came running to me and rubbing his head.
"Ouchie, ouchie, ouchie...I hurt myself"
Where did you hurt yourself?
"In the living room."
drum riff

This was after he told me
"I don't want to go to the car wash. I said NO!" Complete with finger waving and stern look.
I told him that didn't have the option of "saying no" but he sure was cute trying to be the little big man. It's hard not to laugh.

And the Little Big Man is might be wishing he hadn't whacked his brother with a stick also. He's going to have to start rethinking the whole "give me what I want or I'll hit you" thing. His brothers have shown great patience but they are no Job.

It's tough being two going on twenty.

Test season already

My second son goes to the local PS for speech therapy once a week. It's actually interesting to walk through the school on a weekly basis and see what the kids are up to.

Friday, we had a special visit for A to have a speech evaluation. Apparently it is already time to start pushing that State testing. The CRCT posters are up at every turn. The poor kids can't go anywhere without being reminded that the CRCT is coming soon. Because as we all know, the fate of the free world relies how well the school scores on a state test. Poor kids. They face months of testing stress at every turn.
Some of these posters are to me, borderline offensive. Rosa Parks says, "I will not move until you learn your multiplication facts." Martin Luther King, Jr. says, "I have a dream that all students will learn the parts of speech."

seriously.
I guess I am the only parent that thinks that the great stand that Mrs. Parks made shouldn't be used to get kids to score well on a silly state test. I also don't remember any thing about parts of speech in the I Have A Dream speech. It seems cheapening and it doesn't teach these children anything about the Civil Rights Era, math, or grammar.

Instead of pushing this test on every flat surface in the school, maybe the school should start pushing the information students should learn instead. Take down the posters about the high stress, up-coming, every-so-important test. And put up posters ON the parts of speech and multiplication facts. Homeschoolers do this. We do it.
Why not list the states and capitals on the wall for the lunch line. If state symbols are that important to know...put them on the lunch tables. Instead of just putting a calendar up of class parties, testing schedules, and field trips...make a "this day in history" calendar. Education is not just something spoon fed to you by a teacher. Kids can pick up all kinds of things by just being repeatedly exposed to it. If you read that list of capitals enough times...you can't help but learn a few.
Use those flat surfaces to educate students instead of scaring their wits out of them.

Oh...and when an art class does an exhibition on athropromorphic art, if would be more educational if you'd include an explanation and maybe a history lesson for the kids NOT in that particular art class. That way they get something out of the display.

That would be a lot better than the felt posters reminding students that about "The Keys to CRCT success."

The question might be, who cares about a bathroom?

Why even bother fixing up an out dated upstairs bathroom in the first place? Especially one that get frequented by 4 boys.

Well, because they are my four boys and I've already wasted 7 years bathing little ones in a cramped dark room that I absolutly hate. I've rushed bath time for 7 years because I just couldn't hang out in that room any longer than I had too.

The boys deserve more than that...even if their toilet aim leaves much to be desired. So the room is something special for them. Something bright and easy to clean. With 4 siblings, the bathroom becomes a refuge of sorts. A place to read and be alone. The one place wher you are gauranteed a little privacy.

It shouldn't be so ugly.

And if the boys get tired of the frog theme...we can always change it to SpongeBob. It's that yellow up there.

I smell of bleach and paint

A few months ago, I started redo-ing the boys' upstairs bathroom. I stripped the original 80's wallpaper to find horrible walls underneath. I primed the walls and then painted them a light yellow only to discover that there were holes everywhere. ZooDad tore out the 6 bulb light bar and found NO light box. None. Just a gaping hole with an electrical wire hanging grotesquely from some unknown origin.
After the original shock, he went out and bought a light box, installed it, and put in a sweet new silver light fixture with only 2 bulbs.

Well this weekend, I once again took up the task in the bathroom.
After spackling and sanding, I decided that the light yellow was just too light.
Thankfully, I have a paint stash. I decided on a darker yellow. (Pismo Dunes Behr) and starting painting everything all over again. I primed the vanity and painted it an antique White. Once, I had painted everything I could...I called ZooDad to remove the toilet. The plan was to cover the old original 80's yellow linoleum with new, seamless, sage green speckled vinyl.
That was the plan. After removing the shoe molding, I found that the old linoleum wasn't as glued down as I hoped. I pulled up a corner and it shattered.

So tomorrow the plan is to pull up all the old stuff. I figure this will be a lot harder than I expect. I'm sure that it is still glued down right in the middle. I'd love to be wrong though. Then I have to clean everything...again and make a template of the room to cut the new vinyl.**

After that, I paint trim and start gluing down the new floor. Finally is the details. Hanging all the doors and adding hardware. Shower curtain, border, and the accessories. This is going to be the frog bathroom. Since it is my least favorite room to hang out in, I thought I'd pick a fun decor that I liked. Oh yeah...and reinstalling the toilet. That's got to happen too.
It is currently in the tub. The boys are having a huge laugh over that and the gaping hole in the floor.

It will be finished by Friday. I'll take pictures.

** You might wonder why we aren't tiling the floor. Did I mention that I have 4 boys? Did I mention that this is their bathroom. Would you want to clean grout around the toilet used by 3 and soon to be 4 four boys? Don't you think that solid, seamless vinyl would be a better idea and easier to clean? Yeah, me too.

Awwwwww, Man!

I just checked my camera. I "forgot" to take pictures. Well, that's not true. I took some pictures but not nearly as many as I should have.
I have NO pictures of:
the gigngerbread house the boys made
the ornaments the boys made
the other trees in the house
the boys baking cookies
the special ornaments we collect. (I vow to take pictures every year and never do)
the boys in front of the tree
my fireplace with all the stockings, garland, Santas, and the other tree.
the outside lights
the toys before the boys "found" them
my mom

I am so disappointed.
The pictures I do have, well, let's just say they aren't goign to winning any blue ribbons.

It was a great holiday though. The house looked awesone until the toy bomb went off. I guess there is alwys next year.

8 hours 'til I hit the ground running

Tomorrow is our first day back to school. We've taken about 3 weeks off for the holidays and we have to reluctantly get our collective noses back to the grindstone.
Of course, I have to go all out. No half hearted start up for me, so sir-ee. Tomorrow, we'll have school, speech therapy at the school, and 2 hours of Cub Scouts.
Wednesday, we'll start A back at speech and OT. At least for a month or so. On the 23rd, we meet with the school to see what services they will provide and what they want from us in return. I also have to call A's social worker and see where we are in getting out trial date for Medicaid.

In all honesty, I'm beginning to feel defeated in my quest to get my son the treatment he needs. I feel that I have lost the fight before even getting the chance to speak for my son. Every one has already decided that his need is not great enough. The school has the teacher from the special Ed Class coming to the evaluation. This is the class for intellectually disabled children. The state has denied our continued coverage until the hearing. They say he doesn't need 5 day a week treatment. (He does but his therapist can't request it because the state will only pay for 10 sessions a month.)
So we are at an impasse.
The state says he's doesn't have a high level of need.
The school says he needs to be in a special ed classroom.
The therapist say he is profoundly speech disabled and severely developmentally delayed.

But no one but me really knows this little boy.
It funny...when he goes for these evaluations, I tell the evaluator what his problems are, what are his strengths are, and how to get the best out of him. When the test is concluded, they are always so surprised that I was right.
I'm not sure why they are so shocked.
Why shouldn't I know my son best.

I wish I could get the state, the therapists, the judge, and the school all together in one place and just sit them all down and say:
"This is my son. He has Severe Apraxia of Speech. He is also dyspraxic and is developmentally delayed. However, he is extremely intelligent. His cognitive abilities are above average. He is clever, creative, and loving. He will someday be a productive citizen if we can get his body up to the speed of his wonderful mind. I will do all that I can to make this happen. This is what I need you to do to help. A needs 3 one-hour individual speech sessions each week and one one-hour occupational therapy session. I would be interested in adding one or two group speech sessions and possibly a group OT session each week. We can do the group sessions at school, but A will not be enrolled in the special-ed classroom as he is not mentally handicapped. I will make sure that his education is equal to or superior to anything the school can provide a "normal" student. If you could make sure we can get appropriate therapy, A will turn out just fine."

You think they'd make that happen?

Well, tomorrow we catch up on math, start teaching A how to blend sounds other than "fat cat sat," and introduce some new triangular pencils and see if M and A can hold those a bit better.
Wish me luck

Advantages of "having" a farm

My MIL lives on the family farm land. Her unmarred older brothers (The Uncles) have farmed it their entire life. It's a real farm and not one of those cooperate do-dahs that do the countrysides. It's been in the family since before the War Between the States and has been farmed by at least generations. My Uncles my be its last farms though. Unless they can convince one of my boys to take up farm life.

But farm life has great advantages. 2 cords of free firewood in one of them. ZooDad and the Uncles split it and loaded it. ZooDad tried to cut and split some for the Uncle that still lives in t Farm house but he was aghast at the prospect of allowing someone else to cut his firewood.

The bushels of sweet potatoes and peanuts in my kitchen are another advantage. Today, I'm roasting the peanuts to make home made peanut butter. The potatoes will go out in the garage for cold storage for later treats. (By the way, if you've never had sweet potato fries, you need to try them. You can top them with salt or butter and brown sugar.)

I also have THREE bags of unshelled pecans to shell, bag, and share. And that will be some time consuming work.

Every season, the farm brings new treats. The summer brings blueberries. The Uncles are proud of their watermelons. The have scupernongs and muscadines growing wild amongst the plum trees. There's figs, apples, and the occasional pear. That's in addition to fresh corn, peas, beans, okra, squash, and carrots.
And peanuts for boiling in the fall.

Then there is the fishing, the hunting, canoeing, and just traipsing through the woods on paths made by their great-great-great-grandfather. You just can't buy that anywhere.

One day someone from our homeschool support group suggested that we take a field trip down to the farm. (It's about an hour away.) M was astonished when he realized that most kids don't have a farm to play on and can't just get free fresh food whenever they need it.
"If their Gremmie's don't live on a farm, where do they live?" he asked.
When I told him that most Grammies live in houses, apartments, or nursing homes, the look on his face was hilarious. "I'm sure glad that my Grammie lives on the farm."

She's glad too.

Christmas Recovery

I'm home.
And lucky y'all...you get to hear about our holiday.
I might even have pictures. If not...I will soon.
Let's see...when I last left you, S had the flu and we were missing my Mom's surprise party since ZooDad was at Quantico.
I sent the older boys down to play with a buddy and made cookies to make up for the missed party. They had just cooled when the boys got home and M asked to have one. I had not removed them from the cookie sheet but did have my cake cutter/cookie scraper out. I didn't realize that it had such a sharp edge. Neither did M until he cut his index finger open.

Blood everywhere.

I bundled and loaded all the boys up and headed to the ER. On the way, I called ZooDad and filled him in and then called my sister to meet us. (She missed the party too. But I couldn't have 4 boys in the room while one was getting stitches. ) After three big shots and 5 stitches, M was all patched up. We get the stitches taken out tomorrow. It was a really deep cut.

Christmas was over the top as usual. ZooDad spoiled me royally and loved every moment of it. I got 15 skeins of yarn AND a new video ipod. I'm still giggling over the ipod. So far I have loaded every CD I could find including Latina Christiana and all the boys' CDs. I've used 2 of my 30 gigs. My entire Johnny Cash collection. All my downloaded music. 100 kiddie songs and everything else all in one compact little device with headphones and a radio transmitter for the van.
No more searching for lost CD's. No more burning CD's. Yay me!
Oh yeah, and all the books from Audible are going next...as is Story of the World. I am so thrilled. As a bonus, when we caravan to the farm, ZooDad can pick up the signal if he tunes to right radio station.

Christmas day we played, opened presents, visited with family and ate then loaded up for the farm and did it all over again. We loaded up on firewood and 7 layer cake and headed home after spending days seeing everyone we knew. Today is laundry and finding homes for all our new treasures.

On the knitting front, I started a new pair of socks. My BIL spent two days watching me turn out one sock. He was totally amazed.
"Hey, there's a tube. What's that flap thing? Oh...a heel now. That's the foot part now. Toes! It has a toe. You can actually put it on your foot. Wow!"
I'm going to knit him a pair for next year. He'll appreciate them now after seeing how it happens.

We got home last night and unloaded everything. The packaging and wrapping has all been thrown away but the living room looks like a toy bomb went off in there. All the boys are happy and content. Every gift was loved and they got just enough but not too much.

There was great sadness this morning when ZooDad went off to work. But the boys were comforted by the fact that he only has 2 workdays this week. If the boys had their way, we 'd have a month full of Saturdays. If I had any say so...I'd wish for the same thing. We're happiest when we are all together.

At breakfast one morning, MIL beamed as she fussed over all the boys, happily answering their requests of more pancakes, milk, or bacon. My childless BIL, noted how active the boys were that morning. I told him that this was ZooDad's and my experience every morning. We have no quiet breakfasts at our house. My MIL smiled at us and said, "Aren't they blessed!"

Yes we are. I could not ask for more.

Here's where I prattle on about the knitting

I just started this in October. But since I have an obsessive personality, I have really thrown myself into it.

I've crocheted for years. My grandmother taught me and my older sister filled in all the forgotten details. But crochet can only get you so far. I mean, you can make some great afghans and seriously awful toilet paper covers, but you can't get the variety of pattern that you can in knitting.
So I taught myself to knit.
So far, I have made 3 hats and 5 Christmas stockings and one lone sock

Here's four of the five stockings.

The boys have their initials purled into the pattern. I had planned to do a color change but I just haven't figured out how to do that in the round.

And here's my first completed knitting project...evah! This is the one were I learned that knitting in the round is far superior to knitting straight and then seaming.

And here's a couple of my cuties. One is sporting a new boucle Acorn hat. The other is supposed to be wearing the hat above. Do you see it? Look closely. Can't see it? That's because it is most likely stuffed with Hot Wheel cars and toy animals instead of being on his little smiling head.

Busted

JC has a song called "Busted." It's lyrics are just an itemized list of all the bad things that are going on in a farmer's life.

I went to my brother to ask for a loan. I was busted. I hate to beg like a dog for a bone but I'm busted. My brother said there ain't a thing I can do. My wife and my kids are all down with the flu. And I was just thinking of calling on you. I'm busted!

I've been singing my own version of this song lately. Though money is fine, I haven't really even started on Christmas shopping. ZooDad is at Quantico until tomorrow. (He's been there all week.) We'll miss my Mom's surprise birthday party tonight because Baby S has some unknown virus, most likely the Flu. He's fine as long as I keep him on Tylenol/Motrin. As soon as the meds wear off, he's back up to 102 degrees. He's been sleeping with me so it is just a matter of time before I come down with the dreaded disease.
Yesterday evening, one bright curious boy tipped my tart warmer. No one was burned but I know have red wax all over the floor and my yellow buffet. The splatter won't scrape off and the red has already stained it.
And I'm out of firewood.
and one strand of my outside lights has a short....making the whole house dark.

Petty huh? (laugh)

On a positive note.
A sick boy has given me lots of knitting time and I've rather enjoyed being home all week with an excuse to not go anywhere.

I finished all four boys' stockings and hung them by the chimney with care. The stripes were super easy because I just carried the yarn over each row since I didn't care about a seam. It was cumbersome fiddling with three yarn strands at a time but it was worth it when I was weaving in the ends. I'm working on one final stocking for ZooDad.


And the new "fake, pre-lit" tree is up and decorated. I only hung my precious silver ornaments and the garland. The boys did all the rest of the hanging, even way up top. Cool!
Here's the lit version.


I may not be back until after Christmas. I have massive shopping to do. (That lone present is my sister's.) Christmas evening, we'll head down to the farm for a few days of over-eating and goat chasing.
Merry Christmas to all. May your houses stay warm and well lit. May your children stay healthy. May the things you wish for be the gifts God grants you.

In which she half decorates

It's "decorate the house but get sidetracked by all your stuff" day here at the zoo.

The situation thus far.
We have a redneck pile of totes on the porch. I go out periodically and forage through them for stuff.

Three (count 'em THREE) stockings are knitted. Only one has a hanging loop on it. It is hanging from the caboose stocking holder on the mantle. I've cleared the mantle from my normal stuff except my clock. I've replaced it with lighted garland and the train stocking holders. I need to do something else there but I have to find my stuff first.

The new pre-lit tree is up and lit. But it is not fluffed. It's looking pretty Charlie Brownish. I'm about 20 minutes away from putting up my old fake tree. (also on the porch.) But I would have to be desperate because I'd have to sort, fluff, and assemble each and every dang branch PLUS put on my 10 stings of lights.

Jesus, Joseph, Mary, the Wise Men, 3 angels, and a couple of Santas are hanging out on the buffet in the dining room. Beside them are a stack of ornament boxes for my silver ornaments (which need polishing) and my basket of knitting.

In the very center of my living room are two big totes of tree decorations and garland. Four advent calendars has already been hung as has the front door wreath. A tote of Christmas lights sits in the center of our walkway along with a step ladder and various and sundry yard stakes and extension cords.

With any luck I'll be done Christmas. I'd better be. I'm hosting the family this year.

I needed that

We had a grown up party last night.
I didn't take any pictures so you won't see me in all my glittering glory but ZooDad said I looked beautiful.

It was great. We won a $50 gift card and a poinsettia for my mom. We ate a delicious meal, had a few desserts, had a few drinks, and got to visit with some people we liked. ZooDad promised that we could start adult dance lessons. There is a studios between ours and mom's house, so I am going to make the man live up to his promise.

We got to cuddle and laugh and talk about stuff other than children and house stuff. ZooDad was praised a couple of times and I was so proud because I knew I helped him be this fabulous employee, father, husband. (And the fact that he's mine!)

The boys had their own party. They got to hang out at my mom's and play with 3 of their cousins. They ate pizza, ran around outside, and played video games until we showed up. It was midnight before they were asleep in bed so school is pretty much shot for the day.

But is was sooooooo worth it.
Sheila

In which Sheila gets over it all

shake
shake
shudder
brush, brush, brush

I've decided to just shakes that funk off and just be happy. I think that is the first step.

Tonight I have help being happy. I have a real life grown up Christmas Party to attend. A real party with sparkly clothes, a catered meal, open bar, presents, dancing, adults to talk to, and my darlin' hubby to escort me. I am so excited. Now I just have to do something with my crazy hair.


On the knitting front, I finished 2 of the four stockings I have to make (plus a giant one for ZooDad.) The two pictures are without flash so you can see the initials better. Both stockings need blocking and some sort of hanging device. But that is a detail to be worked out after the other 2 are finished.



Today we are doing laundry, reading The Magicians Nephew, and literally... watching grass grow. The winter rye thrown out last week has proven to be a great nature study. We've studies what plants need to grow and experimented with water, sunlight, and ground cover. They have compared species of plants, immature plants to adult plants, as well as growing seasons, planting zones, and a quick intro to photosynthesis.
We would be watching mold grow, but none has yet. After 5 days in sandwich bags and neither, the wet bread, the plain bread, nor the toasted bread has shown any changes. The wet bread does smell not so tasty.
The grass is growing faster than the bread is molding.

Tomorrow we are going to Civil War School. I'll post pictures from it and the fabulous Fallen soldier re-enactment we had at a family reunion a few years ago.

My "getting squashed again" update

If I had known there was a difference between a screening mammogram and a diagnostic mammogram, I would have been worried. "Diagnostic" sounds so scary. The difference is the size of the paddle and the types of pictures they take.

Every woman there was doing the "diagnostic" stuff so we were all creeped out and worried together. A female bonding moment of sorts. One particular lady caught my heart and I really hope that she got news as good as mine.

It appears that my first mammogram showed 2 small spots on my right side. The radiologist thought they might be lymph nodes. The diagnostic mammogram showed the same two spots so I had to have an ultrasound done. The U/S tech and the radiologist couldn't find the spots which led them to believe that the "spots" really are lymph nodes. (From what I was told, lymph nodes look like breast tissue on U/S versus bad stuff that looks like bad stuff on x-ray and U/S.)
I go back in 6 months for a repeat performance of x-rays and ultraound to make sure nothing is "changing."

So, I am in circling mode. No huge red flags but no "You're clean. We'll see you when you're 40." either. I kind of wanted the latter but I'll take the former over the other available options.

Do those self checks and have that mammogram if you've been putting it off.

**UPDATE**
My regular old doctor just called to let me know that he is refering me to a breast surgeon for follow-up stuff. Minimally another set of tests in 6 months but possibly more. Now that I have a "finding" this new doctor will coordinate all my breast health care.

WOW. I have a foot health doc, a woman stuff doc, an eye doc, a plain old doc, and now the breast doc. I'm getting pretty specialized and running out of body parts. LOL

What's knit.

Here's A's acorn hat. ZooDad says it's a bit too feminine. (Ok..it is a bit girlish) But A likes it. It's (too) stretchy, soft, and just warm enough.

S is hamming it up as usual.

My other project (other than my unfinished socks) is making new Christmas stocking for the boys. I had planned to do a colored initial on each stocking. Actually I had planned to do their whole names but that's a whole lot of letters. So I scaled it back to initials.
Then I couldn't figure out how to strand correctly, so I went to a tone on tone patterning for the initial. In this picture you can just make out the purl stitches that form he letter J. In real life, it shows up a whole lot more.

I started this one Sunday. If I can figure out the kitchener's stitch, I'll have it finished my Turkey Day. We are spending a couple of days at MIL's so I can knit non-stop.
Specs....about 14 inches long currently. This picure is a bit wonky on perspective. The top band is about 3 inches wide and the heel is much smaller IRL. The top band is seed stitch on #6 circular needles and the rest is stockinette on #8 DPN's. The initial is just a purl stitch that I graphed out on a knitting chart. I used cheap-o Wal-mart yarn at 2.88 a skein. The $10 worth of yarn should make 4 stockings. I want to crochet a tree skirt then I should be ready to start on some Christmas presents.

Double your pleasure, Double your fun...

I'm here but I'm not here.
I'm getting ready for MIL's imminent arrival by mopping a floor that has been dirty for over a week and cleaning bathrooms.

MIL has her "eat a camera" test tomorrow. She has to spend tomorrow at the hospital I have a repeat mammogram tomorrow afternoon.
Yep, a repeat. Because it just wasn't nearly enough fun the first time. I have a "finding" that requires "additional imaging." Woohoo.
I'm trying not to be concerned because lots of people do repeat mammograms. The past family history keeps niggling up in my head but I'm doing my best to just let go of it and wait for God to take over.

So I'm knitting instead. I finished A's acorn hat in a day and I've started the 1st of four Christmas stockings. As J said, "They are just two pairs of big socks...that don't really match." These children have great faith in me.

If I'm not "here," Here's where I'll be...

I got the final date and hearing request form. As of November 30th, A will no longer have Medicaid. This means we have to stop all therapy until the beginning of the year. Hopefully by that time the school will step up and get their ball rolling. He qualifies but they haven't even started the IEP's or anything. If we don't have a start date by the end of the month, I will start legal action against them.

Speaking of legal action, If I'm not around this week it's because I am getting info together to request a hearing at the state level for Medicaid.
I have several salient points.

1. A's level of care has not changed in the 2 years from his initial approval to this denial. If that level was good enough for approval, it should be good enough for continuation.

2. He has shown progress. He's up from "untestable" to 6% in speech and from 1% to 4% in motor skills in general. So we aren't talking about a kid who will never reach full potential. He has an excellent chance of a productive life IF we can get the therapy.

3. We can't "get" the required 5 visits a week because the STATE limits us to 10 visits of each type of therapy a month. A has maxed out the ST part but can only handle half the OT load. Twice a week would kill him and me.
I even found my original notes WITH the name of the case worker from 2 years ago. We can subpoena her and the other parents in the support group if DFACS wants to backpedal.

I am defending against A's current case worker. She's on our side. All we have to do is convince the judge to come down on A's side
So I am putting together a book and having it bound. It will cover all of A's issues and the progress he has made in the past two years. I am including research to show that way the state has limited us at (10 visits) is counter intuitive to Apraxia treatment (5 days 30 minutes a day versus 2 days for an hour each) and also the predictions of future problems if these issues are not resolved.


I hate doing this stuff. I hate focusing on all the stuff he can't do and how behind he is.

I rather focus on what an amazing child he is and the fact that he read his very first sentences this weekend.

Cat. Cat sat. Fat cat sat.

No it's not fine literature but this is great, especially from a kid who wasn't even supposed to be potty trained by now. (He's potty trained AND reading.)

So if I'm not "here," I'm out preparing for battle. Me and A are taking on the whole world.

Cough, Cough

S started a gaggy cough this afternoon. Nothing serious, just occasional. But I have had enough experience with the random gaggy cough to know where that path might lead. I started the humidifier just in case but I'm doing my "croup-stay-away-dance" out in the back yard just for good measure. I also made sure we had ora-pred in the fridge.
Wednesday night.
That means we have one more day before it becomes a weekend issue. In Croup-speak that means odds are good that he'll get good and hacky by Friday. Oh, plus a family birthday party sweetens the pot a little too.

Or, his allergies are acting up and that means daily meds for the next two weeks.

Either way.
Joy.

Strange day

On the homeschool front, it was a good day. But it was odd in other ways.

Today was A's big therapy day. One hour of Speech and an hour of OT. That's two hours of waiting and "Waiting Room Schooling."
We often meet interesting people while waiting for A. Sometimes it's unruly and undisciplined kids. Other times it is grumpy old people and sometimes it is just nice curious people.

Today was a humdinger.

This older gentleman came in with a son my age who was being seen. He came right over to strike up a conversation with me. The conversation started out fine but went waaaaaaaaaaaay off center. He had lost his first wife to cancer and met his second wife due to his "dressing up."
What sort of dressing up you might wonder?
Well, he whipped out a picture when I didn't take the bait. A nice full bodyshot of him wearing a blonde wig, lots of make-up, a bright pink dress, and white 3 inch heels.

Oh my.

Eventually he asked about the boys and the schoolwork that we were doing. I told him that the boys were homeschooled.
That was just too much for him. He retreated to the other side of the waiting room to speak to his son about how odd WE were for homeschooling.
His son is apparently quite a tolerant fellow. I overheard him saying that he had heard that homeschooled kids turned out really smart.

It was kind of surreal.

Then on the way home down a very busy four-lane road, we watched a buck jump the guard rail and crash into the two cars in front of us. The people were fine. The cars were damaged. The buck spun on his back a couple of times before getting up and walking slowly off the road.
We talked about it for the rest of the trip home. The boys were sad to learn that the buck would probably die but it is best they know how life really works. They've gotten pretty good at spotting sugar coating, so I didn't even attempt to.

I didn't explain the waiting room guy though.

Get Squished!

Today is the day I have been dreading for the last two weeks.
Today, I get my baseline mammogram. I am beyond thrilled.

I know what you are thinking. You're thinking, "Sheila, aren't you a bit on the young side for a mammogram." Why yes, I am. I just hit 35 this summer. However, since I have a family history for breast cancer and since one member was diagnosed at 33 and dead at 35, I am actually a few years late.

So I double reasons to dread. First of all, it's no ice cream party and second...what if they find something?

I don't time to have a cold...much less something big. A takes up a large part of my worry and then I have to spread the rest of my worry out among various family members. I don't have any worry left for me.

So say a little prayer at around lunch today. I'll take a tormenting technition if everything looks all clean and dandy.

UPDATE***
It wasn't that bad. Mastitis was bad. That thrush infection that caused cracking and then went in deep...that was bad. The mammogram...not bad and quite short. I didn't get a bit of knitting done except to cast on for a new hat. (Alas the old hat, we barely new him. He was denied due to his colors and the winds of a a 4 year old's fancy.)
I get the report in a week.

Weekend recap

The boys are not aware that the weekend is over. They are begging to forgo schoolwork this morning to watch Iron Giant. No happening little men. Work...then play.

Let's see, the weekend.
Saturday we got up at he unholy time of 6:30 and dressed all the inhabitants, hooked up the scout masters trailer to ZooDad's v-8, loaded all the boys into my van, caravaned over to my mom and sister's town to pick up our Cub Scout Pack's popcorn. The Popcorn kernel was out of town and had entrusted that responsibility to us.
After loading up $4K of popcorn, we drown it back across town to a church where we were having a fundraising bazaar, unloaded it, counted it all again, and started distributing it to the various scout parents who came by. This kept us busy until 1pm. I knitted a bit. The boys jumped in the inflatable jumpers and ZooDad entertained another mom by sarcastically describing his morning's trip to Bo'Jangels for breakfast. Apparently he did a little employee training while waiting for our biscuits.
When we got hoe, we had lunch and a nap...generally wasting the rest of the day.

Sunday, I awoke at he unholy hour of 6 am and went to the grocery store. By 9 am, I was home, groceries were put up, and the children had all be fed. Yay me!
The kids played outside while ZooDad went into the office to get some stuff done. Then we all went to see Chicken Little. Cute, cute, cute movie but somewhat scary for the lady beside us. She screamed twice.
J was so adorable. He's getting to be a big boy and got embarrassed by the lovely behavior between two characters. At one point he covered his whole face and couldn't even watch.
M was oblivious and didn't even notice.
It was the baby's first movie. He did a great job and stayed in his seat and quiet for most of the movie. We always pick the same seating are each time. The row right behind the handicapped seats. I don't mind the people walking in front of us and it gives the boys a place to get up a stretch a little when they get antsy.
We got to see the Narnia Trailer and the Shaggy Dog and Cheaper by the Dozen 2 trailer. Those go on the movie list. Along with Goblet of Fire and Zathursia...or however it's spelled.

Cool. Movies to look forward to.

Booooooooo!

Here's the zoo residents on Halloween night.

J the nine-year-old with huge feet was a mummy. All of those strips are tacked in place except for the mask which has been "Wonder Under-ed."

Next to him is the baby. He's two and wearing my modified sweat suit. You can just see the purple wings that are sewn onto the back.

M, at age 7, is Luke Skywalker, not Anakin, not Han Solo, but Luke...the original Luke. I made the jacket and the "boots."

A (4) in is a turtleneck. It's hard to be evil and fashionable at the same time.

Also shown in this picture is my handprint covered fireplace door. (I wonder how it got that way.) On the left is a lovely basket that ZooDad brought back from Bosnia many years ago. It houses my yarn stash.
Below it are a stack of knitting books, and patterns.
On the very bottom are previous year's costumes which the boys wore Saturday night at the neighbors' party. More specifically, a Wizard suit, a dragon, suit, and a ghost costume.
On the right you can see S's talking lawnmower which must be nearby at all times. Thankfully, it has an on and off switch that S does know to use.

a rewarding day

Granted, if I measured it in the number of dirty dishes in my sink or the number of laundry loads finished...it would have been a total wash.
But on the "raising men" front, it was a grand success.

We started school late and did the bones, math, grammar, handwriting (fine motor skills), speech, and Latin. M started a new Magic Tree House book. He's easing into chapter books. It's not so much a problem with reading as it is a vision problem. Right now, he's not in glasses because we are still trying to get his eye aligned. But he has an astigmatism and all those words on a page...with no pictures...well, they just all run together. It's hard for him to stay on the right line and keep his place. Hopefully, that will all change next month when he gets new glasses.

J is still reading 21 balloons. He cam running excitedly to explain the professor's balloon to me. Once he said it was a hydrogen balloon, we took off down the rabbit hole to the Hindenburg and its tragic end. (Titanic of the Sky)
Then we dove into blimps in general and how they work and why we no longer put hydrogen gas in them. (Cool blimp site)

That led to a chemistry discussion on my Helium, a noble gas, is safer than hydrogen, a highly combustible gas. We also covered some buoyancy which led to displacement.

We had a late lunch of chicken noodle soup and crackers while the boys worked on their weekly Sudoku puzzles. Afterwards we baked 3 dozen cookies and the boys ate a few and played outside until it got dark.

When ZooDad got home, he was intrigued by the Sudoku puzzle so he and M did one together in a race against me after dinner. (I won!)
ZooDad loves that I am pushing the logical thinking right now. Thinking skills are most important in this household. The logic puzzle were the best thing I ever got out of my gifted "class." When you know how to think, you can figure out the rest.

Then I knitted, (That blue hat has been pulled out and started over. A decided he wanted the dark blue first and I would agree that it looks better.) and ZooDad and the boys went upstairs to work on Cub Scout awards. They finished all the work to earn their computer belt loop and pin.

3 B's...Bath, books, bed and it was time for my favorite show of the week...CSI.

Good day.

The lessons we teach them

S, who is two, was playing with a mega blocks truck and the little workman that accompanied it.
As he played, he dialogged his little fantasy.

"Man go to work. Man go home. Man go to Work. Man go home. Man happy!"
He repeated this over and over. His little man would get in the truck and got to work and then he would get out of his truck and go home and be happy.

I looked over at ZooDad and told him that our little two year old had already learned an important lesson. That a man goes to work to support his family then he comes home to be with them and this makes him happy. That working and being a provider then spending time at home is a worthwhile accomplishment. S has picked that up from watching his Daddy. Knowing that daddy does go to work away from us, but that he will come home and he will be happy.
What an amazing thing for a 2 year old to grasp!

Then I think of the two year old boys that don't have the experience of "man goes to work, man comes home, he's happy." What do they learn? Do the boys with absent fathers learn what men should do to support themselves and their families? Do they learn that they should always be taken care of because they only see their mom taking care of them. They never get to see the give and take relationship between a husband and wife. They sharing of responsibilities and the support given to make life more rewarding.
Currently 34% of all children born are illegitimate. If we assume half are males that means that 17% of all males born every day have no daily male role model. How do they learn to be fathers and husbands if they never see what a fathers and husbands do.

I don't know what to do about that. But I do fear what it will do for our society.

I sure am glad that my sons have learned those important lessons.
The man goes to work.
The man comes home.
and the man is happy.

Obligatory knitting post

I can crochet. In fact here's the beanie hat I just made for M. J has one just like it but it looks like camo material. J's doesn't have the eyelash yarn.


But crochet is limited. It has a great variety for texture but you really can't do the kind of stuff that you can with knitting. So I decided to learn to knit. So after a month of leaning stitches, pulling out rejected squares, and searching for the perfect toboggan hat...I finished my very first knitted project.
I'm rather proud of it for a virgin knitter.

I made it for A, but he rejected it because he wanted a beanie like his older brothers. Baby S loves it though. He puts it on his legs and stuffs toys in it. He pulls it down over his face like that kid from Fat Albert. It's just an all around cool hat as far as he's concerned.
Oh...the specs. Knitted on #6 straight needles and then seamed. (I crocheted it shut and the seam is nice a neat.

Now I have 2 other projects going on.
One is a hat for A. He chose the colors. I've just finished the ribbing and am about to add the stripes. 100% wool on #6 DPNs.


Here's the beginning of my socks. I did this last night at class. I am freaking out about the small yarn and the thin needles. I have to check like crazy to make sure I don't drop stitches. But it looks like it is going ok. I have 4 hours of class to learn to do the rest. Next week we do heels and the last week is finishing. Then I plan on making lovely socks. (I plan big.)

To recap the last couple of weeks.

Here's what's been going on in the zoo.

No cavities in anyone's heads. Yay us! The dentist eyes got big when J mentioned flossing on his own accord. Wow...kids that floss! There were threats to pull a baby tooth if it isn't out in 3 more days. (It finally got wiggly last night.)

Final denial for A's Medicaid. But the school has deemed him worthy of OT assessment. (That will happen in two weeks.) He can cut like a demon but has no writing skills. at. all.

Linda Blair is back. The van is currently sitting in front of the knitting store where she gave up the ghost (or maybe got one) after my sock knitting class. I'm reminded of a quote, I think, from the movie Major League. Something about "dance around with your hoodoo stick and shake your willy." Believe me if I had either and thought it would help...I would do it. It would be better than the dealership's approach.

I finished knitting project one. (A hat for S, I'll post pictures.) Started knitting project two (a hat for A) and also started knitting a sock for me. I also learned a new cast on, twisted German casting. (I was a thumb caster...practically a virgin.) It is complicated but stretchy. I have about 3 inches of hat and two inches of sock going. Everything is on DPNs because I am unable to handle those circular needles.

Halloween was a great success. One store bought costume and 3 made out of other stuff. We had Darth Vader (store) and Luke Skywalker. Then the Mummy and his trusty bat sidekick. Much candy was handed out, collected, and eaten. J was happy that everyone liked his mummy costume and knew what he was.

We had our yearly food drive. 9 adults and 20 kids collected 1050 pounds of food and $236. Then that evening my neighbor had a great adult party which happened to have a few kids. We got the ultimate compliment from a drunken pirate. "Man, when I have kids....I sure hope they are as cool as yours." (I thought they were supposed to be nerdy homeschool kids.)

Because I can't go anywhere or do anything else do tot he possessed van issue...today we have school and laundry. Maybe an unschool and a mostly housework day. I've been to the library. I have Climbing Parnasus and a ton of cool math, optical illusion, and caldecot winning books. J is giggling through 21 balloons. M is reading "A place for Zero" and A is obsessed with alphabet books. Thankfully, we have tons or I would be very sick of Chicka, Chicka, Boom Boom.
I've got a nice pot of grits going and I might even cook some bacon. We've got plans for cookies this afternoon. And sock sorting.
If we are lucky we might just get 3 days of this before the hectic "go here, go there" starts up again.
Hot digitty!

I need a priest

Because I enjoy general chaos, it seems to flock to me like seagulls on a half eaten sandwich.

Oh yes.

Yesterday my van pulled a "Linda Blair." All of a sudden, it powered down (while I was parked) and wouldn't crank. I freaked out and said the vocabulary words the boys have heard and know not to repeat. Then I tried cranking again....click, click, click. Nothing.

Then real panic set in. ZooDad was at the hospital for MIL's body inside camera exploration. Non-working nephew-in-law was with my mom at the hospital for her stuffed in a tube test. My sister was doing pay roll and watching the two kids my mom usually has (thus no room for our five more.) So everyone who would come get me couldn't come get me.
I was at a lost...so I call my friend Jacqui who sent over her wonderful husband. He cleaned the terminals, tried charging the batteries and looked under the hood in a "I know what I'm doing" kind of way that made me feel a bit calmer.

None of that worked. And the van just got freakier and freakier culminating in the wipers going off without me turning on the switches. And I don't even use the rear wiper. How crazy is that? We were both weirded out.

In the end, ZooDad abandoned him mom long enough to grab us and drop us back home. And we didn't get to scouts

Hours later he returned to work his own special mojo on my possessed van with no luck. He even experienced the random window wiping and as a bonus the cleaner fluid sprayed for him. It was like a Car Talk scene from the Exorcist.
He then decided to try one last time....and the demon cranked. It worked fine. We took it to the dealership who told me today that nothing was wrong with it. At. All.

Lovely.
So I had some stuff done that they suggested, which thankfully was part of my pre-paid service plan stuff (they loved that...oh yeah. It took hours to work that little deal out. At one point they wanted to charge me for diagnostic tests that didn't find a problem.) and I get Linda back tomorrow.

Hole in the Head

No it's not a statement of my well-being.

The oscar fish (Oscar and Elmo) appear to have Hole in the Head. Bad news: The fish are developing HOLES in their HEADS. Good News: It's the bad water/high stress HITH and not the infested with awful parasite HITH.
Now there's a silver lining.

Can you imagine getting that kind of diagnosis?

"Well, Mrs Zoo. You seem to have Hole In The Head."
[blink, blink]
"But no worries, it's just stress and a dirty house. We'll get you some vitamins. You'll need rest and a clean habitat. A good diet will speed things up. No actual parasites or wormy things. Just good old fashion bacteria eating your skin off."

Poor fish.
They already have the clean tank and good food. Now I have to get some Hole-in-the-head Be Gone from the pet shop tomorrow. (I'll work it into the schedule.)
I wonder if it works on people?

I'm it!

Jacqui tagged me. I know it was in retaliation.
So for all that is holy, I will tag no one else. (Be thankful but worry not, someone else will tag you.)

I was instructed to:

Search your blog archive
Find your 23rd post
Find the fifth sentence [this is meant to say something about you...]
Post that sentence in your blog along with these instructions
Tag five people to do the same

"I want somebody to hang with."

That's what I posted almost a year ago. I still want someone to hang with. I'm still in limbo land. Too secular for the Christians. Too Christian for the seculars.
Still diggin' Darwin. Still ultra-conservative politically. Still a big mouth and kind of wild. Still don't own any Abeka. Still full of Faith and still see God's blessings in the smallest of things. (Thanks again Big Guy for that parking space today. You gave me the boost I really needed.)
Still feeling a little lonely and wondering why.

The problem is simple....

too many d@mn Queen Bees in the Hive. I'm waiting for the final two to show up but she may well not. I believe one has found another hive to frequent that is more compatible and the other has been quiet for a while.
It's better than Survivor. Which highly opinionated woman will be left standing on the Web Board Vote Off?
Sick? Yeah, I am. Sad? That too. But I am most times smart enough not to get involved in board drama unless one of my personal homies is attacked.

The queen bees are why I hardly ever post anywhere. They are so sure that theirs is the one and only right way and that all others who toe a different party line are inferior and uneducated. And I'm a very easily hurt person who holds deeeeeeeeeeeep, loooooooooong grudges. I forgive, but I never forget. ;)

I'm a lousy Queen Bee. I'm the first one to say, "Hey, I couldn't do it...but I'm happy as a pig in mud that it's working for you." That and the fact that I feel so lousy when I hurt people's feelings even inadvertently.

So part of me is envious that these women feel that they can stand so strong. Part of me feels...I hope people don't see me that way.

Just checking...but I posted the same darn rant last month. Almost to the day. I'm going to have to come up with a form rant just to same myself the trouble. Maybe several. That would be calming in a sort of way. I could just pull up my rant, read it, and then feel better with no real time loss at all.

Hmmm....I could even put hot links for visitors to easily find the rant they need.

Crazy women on web boards...click here
Contractor who make appointments but don't show...click here
Public school bureaucrats...
Family members who get way to involved in the dynamics of your household...
Nosey Neighbors...

Oh yeah...I can just see it.

OK Folks. Tuesday is booked

If there are to be any other "happenings" t, his week please pick a day other than Tuesday.

1. M has speech at 11 am.
2. J and M have scouts from 2:30 to 4:30. This is a busy meeting with achievement stuff to work out plus plans for the food drives (both my responsibility)
3. MIL has her colonoscopy at 12:30 pm to find out why she is broken. ZooDad is taking off from work since she has to have a driver. I can't take her because of the speech/scouts thing plus I would need some one to watch my boys and my mom can't because...
4. My mom has a CAT scan tomorrow at 10:30 am to find out why she is broken.

So my nephew-in-law will take my mom while I tote my boys around and ZooDad takes care of his own mom. Once we get home, I'll have to be good hostess because ZooMIL is spending the night to avoid the 1.5 hour trip home and the fact that she can't drive for 24 hours. (Plus we need her in town in case there are complications.) At some point, I'll have to bug off to see my mom and coo over her sufficiently to make up for the whole not-able-to-take-her-for-the-scary-stuck-in-a-small-tube test.

Wednesday is no good either. We have the regular school/2 hours of therapy going on plus MIL's visit/recuperation.
But Tuesday is full. If you happen to see me Tuesday, do not expect witty humor or even much patience at all. If I am smiling maniacally, just complement me or something and then leave me alone.

I have let both mothers know that if they are going to have to get together and schedule this stuff. We can't have this kind of conflict going on. Oh and some prayers for both Moms and if you've got some spare energy, patience, and three extra hands laying around...I'll take those for me.

Overheard at the "Zoo"

Said by two-year-old S while holding a giant Nerf gun: "I'm gonna shoot you. Stand still."

Said by ZooDad after hearing the above quote: "Maybe he'll be an ATF agent."

Said by A in the van: "When I'm a Dad, I'm going to have just one kid because we only have one seat left."
Said by A after I told him that when he was a Dad, he'd have his own car with lots of seats: "Then I'll just have 4 kids. I don't want to have a lot."

Said by J while he was unloading the dishwasher: "we just keep washing the same dishes everyday. It never gets done. Right when all the dishes are clean, we just go and eat again."

Said by M who was examining the laundry pile: "12 socks, 6 pants, 6 shirts, 6 underwear...every day mom. Every day."

We have a quest

I feel like Queen Sheila and my knights of the Not-quite-rectangular-because-the corners-are-rounded-off table. Today we have a quest. Today we must obtain proof on paper than the 3rd Knight, known as the Knight-who-says-much-but-nothing-very-clearly, can indeed hear the things going on about him. It is our own little Holy Grail because once we obtain this powerful relic, we can unlock the rewards of the (fanfare) Public School System.

We must endure yet another hearing test and see if the elusive beeps can be heard and thusly indicated to the nurse. We have failed this endeavor twice now. It is not that the precious beeps can not be heard. The problem is that the 3rd knight doesn't process them and the fact that when he does... he forgets he heard them. (The 3rd knight is not known for his attention to detail and time on task.)

So there is the challenge. We are waiting until our bellies are full of ham and mayo sandwiches and fresh fruit to set our on our journey. But we will go where ever we must to obtain the "Holy Hearing Certificate"

We will battle impatient nurses, climb bureaucratic mountains, fight our way through appointment forests. We will even bravely face the audiologist if we can ever get an appointment and then fax this precious document to the school nurse.

I'm off to round up coconut shells. We us luck.

UPDATE!
We have obtained the precious certificate of good hearing. The Knight-who-says-much-but-nothing-very-clearly managed to indicate that heard 9 out of the 10 tonous beeps and all is well in the Land of Zoo. Said document is now in the hands of the County Powers That Be and we anxiously await their ruling.

so she just dropped off the face of the Earth

naw...the inhabitants of the zoo and my grumpy co-zoo keeper have been keeping me quite busy.

Things I need to do this week:
1. Reinstall my camera CF card reader thingie so I can more easily upload all my cool pictures. I have gap toothed ZooKid picutures, my latest crochet projects, and our visit with the aligators as well as a picture of my Poke'mon cake.
2. Finish J's camo sk8ter boy hat. M's cranked out quickly but J's large noggin is creating a delay.
3. Find a decent knit or crochet pattern for toboggan style hats.
4. Call the county and a. get them to do something about thier tree which is uprooting my driveway, b. question them about A's special needs evaluation, and c. get homeschool fliers to the BOE.
5. Finish painting the upstairs bathroom and...
6. Put up the wallpaper border and...
7. Put all the bathroom stuff back in the room. (towel holders, shower curtain rod...ect.)
8. Force ZooDad to start replacing the tile that we replaced and then had to pull up and cart back to Lowe's because it was defective.
9. Drag out winter clothes and get rid of the old, worn, and out grown.
10. Plan some lessons so we aren't flying by the seat of our pants.

The big party with 31 guests wasn't even the big news

Today M had his 7th birthday party, though the actual date isn't until tomorrow. We had a Poke'mon party complete with a Pikachu cake and a Poke'ball cake. I'll have to post pictures of it tomorrow since the grand celebration wasn't the biggest news of the day.

The truly big news was that M lost his very first tooth today!

It was quite a day long ordeal. It began this morning when I decided that I needed floss everyboy's teeth including the two that had been flossing their own.
I was shocked-just shocked- to see that M had a almost full tooth coming in behind one of his baby tooth and another erupting behind the neighboring tooth.
Thus began the Great Wiggly Tooth discussion of 2005.
No, he wouldn't let me pull it.
No, he didn't want to go to the dentist.
No, no, no, touching it. Leave me alone you tooth crazy mom.
ZooDad interceded by reminding me that it was against parenting laws to traumatized children at their own birthday parties so I let the issue drop.

At the end of the party, the tooth was downright wobbly.
No, he wouldn't let me pull it.
No, he didn't want to go to the dentist.
in fact, he didn't want the tooth to come at all because his brother said it might bleed.
Ok, little man. So I fed all the boys some left over party pizza and headed out to the bookstore to fondle the wares and wind down from the party chaos.

ZooDad called me twice at the bookstore; once to tell me that the to the tooth was bleeding while the child attempted to eat pizza and the second time to tell me that said child just wanted me to pull the tooth out.
By the time I got home, The owner of the supper wiggly tooth had chickened out and was back to the "I don't want it to fall out bit." I convinced him to let me wiggle it a bit and I wiggled it right out of his head without so much as a whimper.
After 2 minutes of wiping his former tooth's spot and fervently checking his mouth in my make-up mirror, he announced..."I'm glad that's out. I thought I'd never loose a tooth."

Now we have a birthday visit from the tooth fairy. Oh, yes...this has been discussed by the boys in the space themed bedroom. A birthday visit for a very first lost tooth must be extra special indeed.
Poor tooth fairy. She's never come on a birthday before. She may have to swing by the 24 hour Wal-Mart before she goes to bed. I would advise her to do that. One of those gold dollar coins ain't going to cut it tonight.

One tooth down, 19 more to wiggle out under protest.